Family life

On Friday, Andi invited me to her house for Sunday lunch and I readily agreed because I had yet to see what family life was really like here. I had met with her two times before and was slowly learning about her family, but now that she was finally teaching at school in the 1b class, I was seeing her more often.

Sunday morning was another day of pilgrimaging so I went outside and enjoyed the balmy weather, that of approx. 7 degrees celcius, and watched who was going to the services and who was going to shop at the vast amount of booths that were set up yet again. Marci told me he had to work during the pilgrimage so eventually I met up with him. I watched part of the service with him, and there were about 1000 people happily following the priests on the stage. There were 6 men with finely decorated banners in the middle of the aisle just waiting during the rest of the services. Eventually Marci had to go and help the other seminary students do something, I am never too sure what they do, but I also had to leave because I was going to be meeting Andi very soon.

Just after noon Andi came to my house, because it started to rain so she didnt want me to ride my bike to Nyírgyulaj, and we went to her house. Nyírgyulaj, closer to Nyírbátor, and about the same size as Máriapócs is full of houses and even has one family that decided to copy our blue little house...one of these days I will get a picture of it so you can see how blue it really is. I learned that she and her husband Antal were living with her parents while they were renovating her house down the street. They were literally building it up from the ground and had to spend a lot of time fixing it. Next door is her cousin's house, who she said went into to so much debt buying the house instead of building it, they will be paying for the next 20 years. Crazy that they would willingly do that but I wonder what other options you have when salaries are always low and living costs are high.

Lunch was delicious. Soup was a clear liquid with pasta, carrots and something I determined was turnip. The main course was even better! Breaded chicken (csirke) that tasted like heaven with rice and vegetables on the side. Antal gave us each a bowl of preserved plums (szilva) and Andi explained that the meal we were having is traditionally served with bottled fruit, preserves.

Andi's two sisters showed up later, Kati, with her son Maté, and Dori. Playing with Maté was realy funny because all he wanted to do was bounce on a yoga ball or tell me in his two year old Hungarian, what the animals were. Dessert was apple cake that Andi described as apple pie, and did in fact taste much like pie...I really need to get baking sheet so I can start making cookies.

After just seeing them for one afternoon, I felt like I was home. They were all so welcoming and nice, and did not push food at me. It reminds me so much of home and family that I think I am with my own family.

PS
I love this posting, I love that two signs are having a dialogue
http://www.ezrock.com/gallery_new/4378

Finding my place...

Over the past month it has been nice that the teachers are very welcoming and try to help me do anything and everything. I don't know if they see me as a teacher though. It is really starting to drive me crazy! When I asked how I could teach the children about Halloween, she said that kids don't celebrate that here. What is that supposed to mean, I was under the impression that I am supposed to be sharing my customs with them, and one of those is HALLOWEEN!

It was a very long week, the kids behaviour has continued to get worse and we thankfully had the day off school on Wednesday. It sounds silly, but the town water was shut off so school was closed that day and instead, many of the children went into town to the movies. I, on the other hand, not wanting to sit through a movie I would not understand, rode my bike to Nyírbátor (and managaed to change the settings on my keyboard so I can write in Hungarian as well) and went shopping at the Spar. I love Spar and really wish there was one in Máriapócs, but will never be that lucky.

Once again confronted with the issue of the childrens bad behaviour, I suggested that we should put the offending student in the corner as a punishment because this would stop them. I asked how putting them in the corner would really affect them. Szabina admitted that they were told to go outside in the rain, or sit in the corner. Even Márk, who probably had the most experience with being punished said they were told to stand in the corner by themselves. If the whole group was bad, they all had to stand with their arms held high until the teachers told them to sit down.


I really hope that this is my last rant about what I am actually doing...
I am much better now, things have been somewhat sorted out so I will refrain from rants...